BORA – hansgrohe finishes the Tour de Romandie in 2nd and 3rd place overall. Aleksandr Vlasov (2nd, 7 seconds behind) and Florian Lipowitz (3rd, 9 seconds behind) stand next to the winner Carlos Rodriguez on the final podium.
Vlasov underlines his reliable form in this season’s WorldTour stage races. After 5th place in Paris-Nice and 4th place in Catalonia, he has now made it onto the podium. With the confidence of a successful first half of the season, Vlasov now takes a break from racing for several weeks – the build-up to the Tour de France begins.
While a podium finish was Vlasov’s stated goal for the Tour de Romandie, Florian Lipowitz focused on preparing for his Grand Tour debut. For the youngster, the last days were only his third stage race at WorldTour level. The aim was to get into a race rhythm before the Giro d’Italia. His strong performance in yesterday’s queen stage, where he missed the stage win by just a few meters, shows that he is in top form at the right time. This is Lipowitz’s first GC podium in the WorldTour – Turin can come.
Florian Lipowitz: “I’m really happy with the result. Before the race, I never thought I would be able to ride up front here. I came here with mixed feelings because I haven’t had that many race days yet and I came straight from an altitude training camp. I wasn’t sure what my form would be. To be able to ride up front gives me a lot of confidence.”
Aleks Vlasov: “I think it was a good week for the team with 2nd and 3rd place in the GC. It was also a really good team performance yesterday in the queen’s stage. For me it was a nice race and I’m happy with my form. Lipo showed that he’s super strong and I wish him good luck for his first Giro.”
Stage 5
01 GODON Dorian Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale 03:22:00
02 CONSONNI Simone Lidl-Trek + 00
03 SMITH Dion Intermarché-Wanty + 00
GC
1 RODRIGUEZ Carlos INEOS Grenadiers 15:44:46
02 VLASOV Aleksandr BORA-hansgrohe + 07
03 LIPOWITZ Florian BORA-hansgrohe + 09
